California Apparel News

+Beryll, the accessories brand known for its laid-back luxury look, is expanding its lifestyle concept. The company, which began by making limited-edition sunglasses, has added leather belts, handbags, boots and jewelry to its brand cache over the past few years. And for Fall, the collection has expanded to include eco-friendly T-shirts and luxe leather vests and jackets.

For +Beryll, growth has always been an organic process. Founder and Chief Designer Sigmar Berg, who is originally from Austria, lived and worked in Paris for several years, catering to the high-end fashion market. After relocating to Los Angeles, the laid-back luxury vision for the brand evolved.

“What my brand is and what L.A. and California are and the laid-back luxury thing—it just came together so naturally. It couldn’t have been planned better. It was a perfect match,” Berg said. The easy, carefree lifestyle of the West Coast—with its cool denim-meets-rock ’n’ roll vibe—merges with +Beryll’s edgy but streamlined sophistication. Berg, who has a background in architecture, forms the basis of the collection on the timeless principles of function, craftsmanship and pure form. “[In architecture], this is the oldest philosophy of clean forms and good materials [to create] a strong design language,” Berg said.

Influenced by the Bauhaus movement and architect Adolf Loos, Berg adds a sophistication to the unisex collection. For example, sunglasses come in a range of updated classic aviator styles and rock band–worthy frames, and distressed-leather army belts can be worn at the beach or with an elegant dress. Items such as a 55 million-year-old fossilized shark-tooth necklace are made from rare but eco-friendly materials, high-quality leather and metal details.

+Beryll has developed a following all over the world, including stores such as Theodore, Maxfield and Fred Segal in Los Angeles, Henri Bendel and ABC Carpet in New York, Montaigne Market in Paris, Selfridges in London, Le Form in Moscow, and Lane Crawford in Hong Kong. +Beryll’s sunglasses are a favorite of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, and the brand has a celebrity following that includes Demi Moore, Drew Barrymore, Lenny Kravitz, Sharon Stone, Sarah Jessica Parker and David LaChapelle.

The line includes accessories such as modern sterling-silver jewelry and cuffs made from 40-year-old vintage leather. Vintage desert canvas belts and asphalt boots are reworked, restitched and branded with +Beryll’s “Worn by Good People” slogan.

In addition, artisan leather belts are handmade and tastefully decorated with studs, large buckles and colorful antique-inspired finishes. There are also large leather limited-edition handbags and cool unisex holsters that are made with the idea of traversing the city with ease.

“It’s all very ’puristic’ stuff,” Berg said. “We don’t work with a lot of ornaments because I believe when you have a great cut you don’t need big ornaments,” he explained.

The same philosophy is applied to the new apparel collection, which is made with high-quality materials and designed with function and form in mind. Leather jackets and vests are simple but cut perfectly with stylized design lines for a classic but edgy fit. Light- and heavier-weight lamb leathers are available in a palette of black, gray, taupe, moss and brown. Each jacket is hand-treated with special color pigments and branded with the “Worn by Good People” slogan.

All +Beryll products are handmade in Los Angeles except the sunglasses, which are made in Italy. “Everything is really local and made by people who live here,” Berg said. “For us it’s also important that we have this slogan: ’Worn by Good People, Made by Good People.’ It’s very important that we know the people we work with—that we know that care is taken about the environment.”

The new T-shirt collection is made from eco-friendly cotton. The addition of the T-shirts to the collection is also part of the organic evolution of the line. Berg added T-shirts to the collection because he was having a hard time finding high-quality options. The tees, which are wholesale priced from $45 to $60, are made in a clean, solid palette. For Fall the colors are inspired by Point Dume in Malibu, one of Berg’s favorite surf spots. Details are subtle, such as worn edges around the collar. The latitude and longitude of Point Dume are printed on the sleeve.

Additional wholesale price points are $128 to $138 for sunglasses, $128 to $180 for belts, $750 to $980 for large handbags, $48 to $1015 for jewelry, and $365 to $655 for vests and leather jackets. Berg hints at even more categories for the +Beryll brand. “We [are] not only an accessory brand, nor are we just doing the leather jackets. We are a lifestyle concept,” he said.—N. Jayne Seward